


A Change in Status

by Canosan



Category: Mass Effect, Prequel - Fandom
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/F, Multi, Other, Prequel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-11
Updated: 2015-08-11
Packaged: 2018-04-14 04:58:28
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,946
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4551417
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Canosan/pseuds/Canosan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A top Asari Spy organization is called on to deal with humanity. The Asari government can no longer ignore the truth, that it is only a matter of time until humanity becomes powerful enough to join the council. The Asari government decides that Cerberus is its biggest threat and embarks on a mission to bring down this human centric organization and its leader, the Illusive Man. </p><p>The events of this story takes place before any of the events of Mass Effect I.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Change in Status

**Author's Note:**

> This story is about a character only mentioned in the game as name on one of the Shadow Brokers dossiers you get to read as a reward for completing the Shadow Broker DLC in Mass Effect 2. This story is absolute fiction and has various made up prequel elements that might differ from the lore slightly.

_A Change in Status_

 

The Shadow War

As far as anyone knew the Illusive man had simply seduced Matriarch Trellani, just another in a long list of people to occupy that list. The Shadow Broker’s Dossier only knew that he slept with her twice in one week, which by coincidence is what the Illusive Man told the Cerberus double agent to type to him. The truth is far more interesting and had started years earlier.

 

Matriarch Trellani was head of one the most clandestine spy organizations on Thessia. She was specifically responsible for keeping tabs on the upcoming species, humans. The Asari were skilled diplomats and even better biotics, their commandos were some of the most feared combat units in the galaxy. However, spying required more ruthless purpose than diplomacy. Fortunately. the Asari knew this which is why both the Turians and the Asari used the Salarians for such purposes. However, some information demanded an Asari, especially if it was meant for the government on Thessia. This was one of them. Matrairch Trellani organization simply known as the Shadow were among the best in the business and as far as Asari intelligence goes they were the only organization that came close to keeping up with the STG teams of the Salarians.

The fact that she was being asked to stop shadowing the STG’s and focus her attention on the humans was big. Matriarch Trellani asked the council of twelve if she had been demoted and the conclave of matriarch’s simply said no, and guaranteed her that if she performed her job satisfactorily then she too would be assured a spot on the ruling council. The conclave explained that the humans had been catching up fast.

In fact, the Asari as well as the rest of the galaxy were starting to discover humanities greatest strength, its ability to adapt. Humans were forceful and extremely utilitarian. The Asari worried that left unchecked they might challenge the Asari’s place in the galaxy. Matriarch Trellani was looking at the preliminary reports about humanity, they all read the same. Humanity was a race that had the military tactical ability of the Turians, the capacity for science on par with the Salarians and a knack for diplomacy almost as good as the Asari. In short the Asari knew it would only be a matter of time before Humanity was on the council. It was Matriarch Trellani’s job to make sure the right leaders of humanity were in charge when they got there.

The Asari government was extremely wary of a group within humanity known as Cerberus. Matriarch Trellani read the dossier on group and was most interested in the Alliance designation of their leader, the “Illusive Man.” _A man after my own heart,_ Trellani thought _._ After all, Matriarch Trellani’s designation was the “Shadow Queen.” A name that a later intelligence mogul would emulate when he went by the name “The Shadow Broker”. In fact when the Shadow Broker name first appear over a two centuries ago, a lot of people assumed it was an agent of her organization. Matriarch Trellani knew whomever he/she this Illusive Man was, only he would know the true break down of the organization. Organization such as this Cerberus group typically organized themselves in cells which had no knowledge what the other was doing. The Illusive Man was the key. She knew if they had him the rest of the Organization could be dealt with or better yet, co-opted. He would attempt to hide, but money always points the way, although it will no doubt be hard to find.

 

Thessia:e Citadel Bank of Thessia

 

Matriarch Trellani came into the building with four of her agents, she whispered in one of the attendant’s ear, he nodded and responded,

 

“Yes Matriarch I will get Barla Von, you are lucky he was about to head back to the Citadel.” The Volus escorted the Matriarch to a back room.

 

“Ah Matriarch Trellani, come here to see our progress on the money tracing paradigms of the front companies you gave us?” Barla Von said in greeting.

 

“Yes. Where does the trail go?”

 

“It was hard I give you that. This organization is one of the best I ever encountered. Four of my best techs gave up. If I was not a stickler for seeing a thing through I doubt you would even have what we came up with. They must have over 600 corporations and organizations they disperse their money through, but you can never erase the trail, and in the end directions start to form.” Barla Von explained.

 

“Well it is obvious you do not have an absolute answer, show me what you do have?” Matriarch Trellani responded.

 

"I have narrowed the money dispersement algorithm to these four companies each with at least ten subsidiaries. However, there is reason to believe there is an actual Cerberus cell in this company here. The pay reports for each of the employees seems higher than the market would dictate.” Von explained.

 

“Meaning they are getting paid for doing something other than weapons research” Matriarch Trellani interjected.

 

"Correct, I would be very careful with this group Matriarch, they do not like people looking into their affairs, they have been known to make Alliance officers disappear when they started to pry, if they do that to one of their own race, I shudder to think what they would do to an Alien.” Barla Von warned.

 

“I know and don’t worry, the Broker will be privy to any information that we turn up.” Matriarch Trellani said.

 

“Yes that is agreeable, I figured that is why you asked me to perform the inquiry.” Barla Von added.

 

“It was and also the fact that you have demonstrated admirable discretion over the years. Very well what is the name of this weapons research firm?” Matriarch Trelanni asked.

 

"Styx Hydraulics, a firm specializing in industrial size mechs, they have made some of the best heavy mechs in the galaxy.”

 

“Very well thank you Vonn, I will be in touch” Matriarch Trellani said as she left the banks back office.

 

On the way back to her car she spoke to her aide and said, ”Tell dark squad to report to me, I think it’s time this weapons manufacturer get a visit from me, tell them that an Asari Matriarch like to see their stock so they can negotiate a purchase for Asari remote colonies.”

         

Noveria Peak 39 Styx Manufacturing.

 

“Matriarch Revea we are overjoyed by the fact you want to buy from us. I am surprised that the Asari would want to purchase mechs from us” Director Stevens said. Matriarch Revea was the alias Matriarch Trellani was using for this mission. It was one of the best kept secrets in the galaxy other than a few elite squads of her organization no one knew her true identity.

 

“Well we wanted to inspect the Mechs that are being used all over the galaxy and possibly use them in our remote colonies. While we typically do not run afoul of Batarians, the council siding with your kind has put some of our remote colonies at risk from Batarian pirates and slavers.” Matriarch Trellani explained.

 

“I see, well in that case what did you have in mind, were you thinking of looking at our police models, highly useful in civilian environments or more of our heavy duty military grade mechs?” Director Stevens said.

 

“Military preferably mobile and lightweight. I do not want any lumbering machinery, we need to be able to get the maximum amount of payload in the quickest amount of time.” Matriarch Trellani explained.

 

"That is not our specialty, I am surprised your people did not inform you of this before coming here?” Director Stevens stated as he gazed at the Matriarch perplexed.

 

“Um no I knew that, but I also know of your firms reputation for making notch mechs, most firms are able to make custom mechs does yours not?” Matriarch Trellani deftly redirected his question.

 

“Indeed we do, and I am sure we can come up with something lighter than we usually manufacturer, something just for an Asari” Director Stevens said with a beaming smile on his face.

 

"I see well you have seen our catalogue but to give you a better proposal of what you need, we are going to need time, and I can give you an entire estimate to supply every one of the colonies desired with training packages with the custom made lighter mechs, if you would return to Port Havasham in two weeks we can conclude our business then.” Director Stevens said.

 

As the Matriarch got into the Mako to drive back a couple of aides walked right next to director Stevens. “Sir Do you want us to check them out?”

 

“Yes the small one that kept sneaking around during our tour, have Leng’s team go and introduce himself to her, I will inform Styx leader.” Director Stevens said.

  
**Ferryman Outpost: Noveria**

“Good and you are sure she took the bait, will she return in two weeks?” the man with a smooth mask uttered.

 

“It is hard to say, it was evident they were not truly serious about purchasing, the woman did not even know we specialized in heavy mechs.” Director Stevens said with a tone of self satisfaction.

 

“Oh really, the heavy mech tipped you off? A better tip would be the fact the Salarians have a specified deal for all of their mechs for another twenty years. Salarians and Asari are the best legal techs in the galaxy there is no way they would let a firm like yours steal their goods.” The masked man said annoyed

 

“Another tip would be the fact that Matriarch Revea represents a republic with no remote Asari worlds, and has not been seen off-world for over fifty years.” The Masked Man said as he continued to speak in a more disdainful fashion to Director Stevens.

 

“It troubles me that you did not know these facts before speaking to this woman. If you want to continue working at this facility, I recommend you think less of your profits and more about our cause. You were just about to let an Asari Matriarch infiltrate our cell. The masked man threatened.

 

“We will have news of their existence soon enough Styx Alpha, I have managed to get the solution on her hand. We should be getting the first data any second now. “ Kai Leng interrupted in an excited voice as he hit his Omni tool to display what the nanites were retrieving.

 

 

**Port Havensham:**

The conversation taking place in the Mako was thought to be private, if they only knew that their every word was being transmitted to the Ferryboat facility.

“I have pictures they some of the personnel had this tattoo on their arms.” Gallia said with excitement as she hit her Omni-tool.

 

 “Cerberus, I did not think they would allow their workers would be so blatant about being a Cerberus facility.” Matriarch Trellani said as she looked at the images captured.

 

“Well, they are on Noveria, and it is not like Cerberus does not have its sympathizers among the humans.” Gallia tried to reason.

 

“No this is too easy. I believe we have been found out. If so, then when we return we will not retour the facility but remain in port Havensham.” Matriarch Trellani said.

 

“But Matriarch Trellani, if we can get back in there we can start the process of infiltrating them!” Gallia countered.

 

Matriarch Trellani promptly slapped Gallia hard on the right check, ”What in goddess are you thinking, do not dare to call me by my real name while we are on assignment, if we had been in a public place, you would have fried us all!”

 

“I am sorry Matriarch Revea I…I was just excited, I promise not to slip up again.” Gallia apologetically uttered holding her face.

 

“Contain your excitement my little spitfire, we still have much work to be done, but that is a good start” Trellani assuaged her protégé.

 

Cronos Station

 

The Illusive Man’s headquarters were still in the process of being built. The Illusive man knew that once this headquarters was finished the base would be the perfect command center to help usher in a new age for humanity, no longer would Cerberus would need to constantly function out of makeshift headquarters, no longer would the Illusive Man be forced to be a mere voice in a cell leaders Omni-Tool.

 

The Illusive man stood by as the brand new communications array had finally been installed. For the most part his part of Cronos Station was finished.  The rest of the enormous space station were still under constructions. The grand plan for his station, would be a headquarters that could headquarter a fleet, and still be impossible to find to any authorities. The energy of the local star would guarantee scanners would be unable to pick up their traffic. Their proximity to the mass effect relay in the horsehead nebula would also make it impossible to determine vectors. Cerberus soldiers and ships could come and go as they pleased.

 

The Illusive man picked only the most fanatical soldiers to populate his wing. He wish he could buy such loyal men the companionship they deserve but, he and they both knew the necessity to always stay on base, the minute anyone of the soldiers were allowed to leave the base they would leak the location and the enormous expenditure it took to make this base would have been wasted. Sex workers were a luxury he could not afford nor was any social apparatus whatsoever, the fact the place was a devoid of any social center was one of the reasons this location was chosen.

As the Illusive man took his new communications array out for a test spin he smiled as he finally had an organized screen setup to listen and manage the cells currently operating. When this station is functioning at full capacity we will be able to run twenty times the amount of project cells as we are currently running.  

So as his communications array linked with all of the current cells, a communications marked priority came through one of the channels, he promptly leaned forward to activate it.

It was a transmission from some surveillance nanites the Styx team injected into someone. Asari by the sound of it. The Illusive Man listened to the entire conversation in the Mako. He was able to make out the names of everyone in the Mako.

Styx team had sent a communication to ask the Illusive Man on advice on how to proceed. The Illusive man, thought it was odd that the Matriarch was angered by the use of her real name in private quarters. A mark of a spy. An Asari spy. The Illusive Man ran his data mining program only to find nothing on Matriarch Trellani. This was odd, Asari Matriarchs were quite revered for one to have no history in government records, meant the omission was intentional.

In the end the Illusive Man spent two days researching the names of the people on the Mako. When he was about to give up a contact called in with a potential link to one of the aliases used on the Mako. It was from a Krogan. His name was Garm and he informed the Illusive man that he had once fought an Asari over three hundred years ago by the same name. The Illusive man thought it was ironic that the Krogan’s life he saved, was the one giving him this information. A long time ago Garm had been a part of some tribe on Tuchanka, and the Illusive man did not know the exact details ,but the Krogan had angered the wrong Krogan and had to be hidden lest he be discovered and killed. The Krogan hunting him was apparently his brother, whom he slighted in some family feud, something to do with their father.  The Illusive man really did not care other than he was grateful this coincidence had led him to receive this information.

The way Garm had put it ,Matriarch Trellani was perhaps one of the top spy operatives in the Asari Government. The woman was as cunning as an adversary as you could expect. So when Garm transmitted all of the information he had on the woman, he included an old file disk. On this disk ,from over three hundred years ago, was a reference to a woman by the name of Matriarch Revea. Matriarch Revea was a known alias of the Shadow Queen!

The Illusive man looked awestruck as he was slightly shocked that Garm had never connected the two, but then again why should he, Matrairch Trellani most likely did not use this alias when she encountered Garm. The Shadow Queen, was a person whom the Illusive Man had only heard rumors. Cerberus it seemed had drawn the intense interest of the Asari government. If the Shadow Queen was involved it could only mean that the Asari government was desperately trying to infiltrate his organization. Well, it would seem the Shadow Queen has drastically underestimated Cerberus, as well as humanity. A mistake the Illusive Man had no intention of letting the woman rectify. So the Asari want to play…game on…” The Illusive man thought as the wheels in his head began turning.

 

The Illusive man smiled where he stood as continued looking through data pads. I really must attach a proper chair here with a control panel for this communication array he thought. I think I am going to spend an enormous amount of time in this room. He had no idea.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


End file.
